Bike chain skips when pedaling hard: Best Tips to follow

Loose cables, improper cable management, and stuck chains could be a few reasons for which your bike chain skips when pedaling hard. Moreover, your bike chains can get stuck between pedals and might not run. Sometimes, these can be easy to handle but eventually, it gets worse. However, more than half of them are easy to repair and not too costly. Fortunately, you don’t even need to be an expert or seek others’ help to get you out of this problem!

But, if you don’t know how you can do it yourself, this article is for you! In this article, we’ll be covering everything that you need to know about skipping bike chains, their problems, and solutions. So read the article to the last!

Bike chain skips when pedaling hard 

Skipping Chain

The Primary reason behind chain skipping is stretching in cables. Without enough cable, and tension to adequately control your derailleur (the portion of your bike that moves the chain from one sprocket to another), your bike chain skips while pedaling. When you attempt to shift gears, it can result in the bike chain slipping under torque.

Why Bike Chain Skips?

With time, your bike cables get expired. Meanwhile, some stretching occurs when you connect a new cable. Besides, the older cables extend too far sometimes. That’s when the trouble began.

To fix a skipping chain in the rear derailleur, shift your chain to the smallest ring on your rear cassette and the middle or larger ring on your front derailleur. The most typical advice to repair a skipping chain is to tension the rear derailleur. Some reasons act as risk factors behind bike chain skip.

Underneath here, you will get pretty much clarity about why your bike chain skips when pedaling hard-

1. The chain is loose or too long:

The issue arises as people start combining multiple speed chains than the number of gears cassettes.

Bike chain skips when pedaling hard
The chain is loose or too long

Now, you might wonder why anybody would ever do anything like that. However, there are certain times when you may get away with this.

To save some money, move the entire drivetrain to a different number of cassette gears. In certain other instances, there is a longevity problem. Nowadays, chains are designed differently to make them move better or be stretch proof for very long mileage.

It is pointless to mention that better brands sell quality items. They don’t sell bad quality or cheaper chains. But often, customers try to improvise their drivetrains for the best they can find. And that’s one of the most significant factors of bike chain skips when pedaling hard.

2. Stuck of Chain:

It’s usually quick to note where a chain connection is trapped. Simply because the chain is absolutely dried and rusty, it may often happen while the chain looks perfect. This can lead to other kinds of chain destruction.

Chain's Stuck
Stuck of Chain

They can even sometimes be damaged by default. Damaged chains normally have a rough edge. Every time it crosses the derailleur pulley, the rough edge keeps the chain-link trapped. A chain even gets broken during a journey. Particularly mountain biking chains because you would have to hop on bigger chaining under your body’s full load. During this or much worse, chain-link plates may be twisted. The bent chain component will trigger chain links to travel even faster than they should and cause chain skipping. But that’s the expense of getting fun while mountain biking.

3. Lack of Gear and Chain Compatibility:

The most likely culprit is a loose cord when the bike chain skips between gears while cycling. When you attempt to shift gears, it can result in bike pedals slipping under load. Your bike cables extend over time.

Gear and Chain Lack
Lack of Gear and Chain Compatibility

New bike chain gears slipping is one of the most common complaints. Sometimes, stretching occurs when you connect a new cable. As gears and chains are needed to transform the motion, so they need good compatibility.

4. Wrong Cable Management:

Even if you’ve placed the right length of cable or wire, it can result in bike chain skip when pedaling hard. Often changing the cable stress doesn’t matter. Multiple things can have this effect. However, the cables may go through holding or cause problems.

Wrong Cable maintain
Wrong Cable Management

Cables and housings need to get the corrosion with time. I like taking them out and dumping some chain oil into all the housings. This stops them from getting stuck if performed periodically. But if they do, you should try chain oils to keep them going a little faster. It won’t produce flawless performance. Instead, it’ll increase your bike chain’s lifetime and move better.

5. The chain gets worn out or torn:

In a bike, chains have individual circle connections. Since some spin to keep it running, the metal on the chain steadily grinds itself away. But essentially, each connection gets extended a little because you add up more joints than a chain consists of. As a result, it quickly gets an additional inch in duration. This lets the chain balance badly on the chaining. When the chain gets friction, it doesn’t lock into teeth; instead, it skips it.

the chain gets torn
The chain gets worn out or torn

In normal conditions, there should be no wide gap in the chain in a reasonably compact condition (whatever position). Why slips the chain? As described above, the chain and front and rear gear shouldn’t be slack; rather, they should have adequate spacing. If you place them too loosely, it can cause slipping.

How to Fix a Skipping Chain?

The most typical advice to repair a skipping chain is to tension the rear derailleur. However, often you can have to either shorten the chain by cutting a connection or switching the shifter cable entirely. Even the cable can be too close. Read and follow the following steps to know how to fix a skipping bike chain.

Step-1

Take your bike in free space and pedal manually with your hand or foot before you adjust the derailleur to the smallest cog. Double-check the shifter at this stage. If the chain goes up a gear, click the shifter once. If nothing happens, you need suspense.

Step-2

Move your chain to the smallest ring on your rear cassette (the toughest gear) and the center or wider ring on your front derailleur to repair a skip in the rear derailleur. Click the shifter once. If the chain does not shift a gear, you must apply tension.

Now turn the barrel adjuster in by twisting it forward. The barrel adjuster is a tiny component, and you can find them on the derailleur’s backside. Your cable travels through it to the gear shifter.

Twist the right barrel adjuster laterally opposite your brake lever—the brake cord travels through it when it approaches your shifter. Displace the adjuster by shutting it off half a switch. You can apply the same method with the front derailleur using a barrel adjuster—the front derailleur barrel pressures in the opposite direction. Screw the adjuster to create friction.

Step-3

Now turn the barrel adjuster in by twisting it forward. The barrel adjuster is a tiny component, and you can find them on the derailleur’s backside. Your cable travels through it to the gear shifter.

Twist the right barrel adjuster laterally opposite your brake lever—the brake cord travels through it when it approaches your shifter. Displace the adjuster by shutting it off half a switch. You can apply the same method with the front derailleur using a barrel adjuster—the front derailleur barrel pressures in the opposite direction. Screw the adjuster to create friction.

Step-4

Test the restricting screw if the bike can’t turn gears without skipping. The restricting screw atop the derailleur. Look for the “H” screw, which means the high gear (not all bikes will be labeled this way, but many are). By loosening this bolt, the chain will better enter the smallest cog and turn gears.

Although these measures can fix the problem related to bike chain skips when pedaling hard. But if they don’t come in handy, then you’ve to take them to the mechanics. You may resolve the issue by eliminating any excess connections. Any of your bike components can need repairing, even the cord. Replacing them as appropriate is safer than causing a major accident by riding old bits.

Conclusion:

If your bike chain skips when pedaling hard, then it is a troublesome matter. But we believe that you can easily fix the problem as you’ve known about the possible threats as you have read this article.

So that’s it for today. We hope it was helpful to you. If you have any queries or any experience regarding this, don’t forget to leave a comment below. Good luck, and thank you!

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Cayley is a rehearsed columnist, editorial manager, and item analyzer. With 7 years of experience surveying bikes and bike accessories, She appreciates dragging the most recent items through some serious hardship, assisting riders with tracking down the correct bikes and bike accessories for them, and sharing the best counsel, clues, and tips to assist them with benefiting from riding.

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